Hundreds of tea estate workers have surrounded a plantation owner's home in India's north-eastern state of Assam and set it on fire over a labour dispute, killing him and his wife.

Police recovered the charred bodies of the couple, Mridul Kumar Bhattacharyya and his wife, Rita, from the burned remains of their house in Tinsukia district, Superintendent PP Singh said on Thursday.

The plantation had been rocked by labour trouble over the past few weeks and some workers had been suspended two weeks ago.

On Wednesday, around 700 workers armed with bows and poison-tipped arrows surrounded the house and set it on fire, trapping the couple. The house had burned down by the time police reached the remote region in Tinsukia.

Police are investigating but no arrests have been made, Singh said.

The estate is about 700km (435 miles) north-east of Assam's capital, Gauhati.

More than half of India's tea production comes from some 1,000 tea estates across Assam. Tea plantations employ thousands of women.

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